DTCC goes live with tokenization service covering $30 trillion

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation went live Wednesday with a tokenization service for 34 securities, CoinDesk reported. Eligible instruments include select large-cap stocks from the Russell 1000, exchange-traded funds and U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds.

A DTCC spokesperson told CoinDesk the eligible securities represent approximately $30 trillion in market value. The service runs on the Canton Network and DTCC's private Besu blockchain. Each token is backed one-for-one by securities held at DTCC subsidiary Depository Trust Company (DTC), and the tokens can move between registered wallets around the clock.

Twenty participants have signed agreements to access the service, among them Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Fidelity Investments, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citadel Securities, State Street and UBS.

For advisors, the access list defines the perimeter: a client holding Treasuries or large-cap ETFs at a participating firm can use the service; one at a non-participating firm cannot. Conversion happens during business hours, with DTCC targeting processing times of 15 minutes or less, so round-the-clock movement applies to tokens already issued rather than to the conversion itself.

DTCC subsidiaries handle clearing, settlement and custody for much of U.S. stock and bond trading, with more than $114 trillion in securities held at its depository. Citi analysts project tokenized securities will become a $5.5 trillion market by 2030, according to CoinDesk.

"Today marks the culmination of years of work to bring tokenized securities into a regulated framework supported by trusted market infrastructure," said Frank La Salla, DTCC's president and CEO. The design places the tokens inside DTC's custody and governance perimeter rather than in a venue running alongside it: the backing securities stay at the depository, and the digital representation inherits its standards.

Stellar and Circle Internet's Arc blockchain will be added next year, along with broader corporate-action support and tools for settling transactions with digital cash. Those additions would extend the service past issuance toward moving value against the tokens. DTCC said more firms will join over time.